Numerous board games have been developed over the years which simulate the game of baseball. In one such game of which we are aware, a baseball playing field is depicted on the game board. The game is designed for two players, one of which is at bat and the other of which is in the field. The two players have spinners, with the indicia on the in-bat spinner indicating various hit possibilities and the in-the-field spinner showing various out possibilities that occur in a conventional game of baseball. The player at bat spins his spinner and receives a strike, ball, foul, or hits the ball depending upon where the spinner pointer stops. The player in the field then spins his spinner to determine whether the "hit" ball is caught, dropped, etc. Various game pieces are moved around the simulated baseball diamond to represent players on base. A similar prior simulated baseball game utilizes dice instead of spinners to designate the various play possibilities during the game.
The main drawback of those types of simulated baseball games lies in the failure of the games to represent or truly simulate the actual playing conditions of the game of baseball. That is, the spinning of spinners and the throwing of dice bear no relation skillwise to the pitching or batting of a ball. Furthermore, those prior games do not reproduce all of the playing situations and possibilities commonly found in a typical baseball game.
There are some prior simulated baseball games in which a miniature ball is actually pitched to the batter. In other words, the player in the field operates a pitching mechanism which projects a small ball toward home plate. The player at bat manipulates a batting device at home plate and tries to hit the pitched ball. The game board has various holes or pockets over its playing area into which a hit ball can drop to represent various out and hit possibilities. Balls and strikes are determined by the pitched ball missing a designated strike zone and by the batter missing the pitched ball.
That type of game has definite advantages over the games using spinners and dice because the outcome of the game is determined somewhat by the skills of the two players, rather than simply by the laws of chance. Even so, however, they do not even approach the realism of an actual baseball game because they do not offer all of the game options and possibilities that contribute to an exciting contest. Moreover, the various hit, out, double play, foul, etc. plays that are presented by these prior games do not reflect the actual statistical occurrence of those events or plays in a typical baseball game. Thus, while those prior games are denominated simulated base ball games, they do not, in practice, realistically reproduce a typical baseball game.
Moreover, the prior games of that type of which we are aware are not particularly convenient to use by the players and it is often difficult for the players to keep track of the status of the game.